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Stop "Wine"ing Please

P1: I can't believe next week is my last week of mat leave. Little A will be one year old on April 22nd (Earth Day!). Actually, what I can't believe is that I survived this year. I think I had some degree of post-partum depression/anxiety for at least the first 6 months of her life. So it's kind of ironic that she is such a happy baby...much more low maintenance and easy going than Big A ever was. I'm glad at least that my misery didn't affect her.

I am so excited to really begin focusing on my studies and career transition now. On April 28th I have a 3 hour volunteer orientation at Mount Sinai and I meet with Dr. M on May 14th...I so hope I can get started volunteering ASAP. I really think I can make a difference for women who have experienced a pregnancy loss, at least I hope I can. I know I could really have used the type of emotional support I will be offering when I went through my miscarriage.

P2: There is nothing worse than whining. Anyone with a child old enough to whine knows what I'm talking about. Big A is a champion whiner and it drives Adam and I NUTS. Of course, my mother likes to remind me what a champion whiner I was. All I can say is I now understand why it drove my own parents nuts. I don't know if it's reasonable to think Little A will be any better. As she learns to talk, I guess we'll see. I've read all sorts of strategies for dealing with whining in parenting books, but so far I've found no good solutions. But I probably make it worse because I always fall into the trap of trying to negotiate with Big A in order to avoid a full-blown tantrum. I've gotta stop that.

F1: I rarely drink anymore (between the ages of 13 and 25 I did more than my fair share of partying), but I do occasionally enjoy a glass or two of wine. Although my family is full of foodies who know their wine, and can distinguish good from bad, I don't know if I can say the same for myself. But I do know what I like and don't like. I HATE all wines from the new world (i.e. New Zealand, Australia and South Africa). I know that sounds weird but every time I try one I hate it, no matter what it is. Last night we had friends over for dinner and we drank some red wine. I had a glass of Shiraz from Australia from a bottle my parents and brother heartily enjoyed when they were visiting, just to see if I could distinguish what it is about these wines I don't like. Sure enough, I hated it and I can only say that these wines taste "musty" to me. I don't know what the proper wine lingo is, but that's how I would describe it. I then had a glass of Beaujolais from France and found it wonderful. Again, I don't know wine-speak well enough to articulate the taste. I just know I liked it.

F2: Exercise of the week: Incline bench press

One easy way to mix up your strength training workout is to do the same exercises you usually do, but from a different angle. So if you usually do bench press on a flat bench, try doing it on the incline bench or decline bench. You can also do chest press and chest flies on an incline or decline bench, rather than flat.

Anyone who has breastfed 2 or more children knows how important it is to keep the pectoral muscles strong. Without going into much detail, think of deflated balloons...

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